Jasper County is declaring Emergency Medical Services an essential county service under Iowa Code Chapter 422D, citing workforce shortages, training needs, equipment costs, and gaps in response coverage. The resolution establishes an EMS Trust Fund for future dedicated revenues and designates the Emergency Management Agency to lead evaluation, planning, stakeholder engagement, and recommendations for long-term EMS system sustainability. This is an early-stage systems and funding design effort; no specific levy structure, technology platform, or service contracts have been selected, and any property tax levy would require a future Board decision and voter approval. For vendors, this opens the door to help the county assess current EMS operations and identify solutions for dispatch coordination, training programs, workforce support, data/reporting, and equipment modernization. A practical next conversation is around providing planning support, modeling service/response scenarios, or demonstrating EMS software and services that could be funded once the EMS Trust Fund and levy structure are finalized.

An EMS Advisory Team may be formed including EMS agencies and a Board member to guide evaluation and...